One million bees invade Lebanon County truck stop

Employees at Love's Travel Stop off the Lebanon exit of Interstate 81 were stung by honey bees that escaped from a tractor-trailer Wednesday morning.

Witnesses say truck drivers and customers were seen running to and from their cars as they tried to avoid getting stung by some of the estimated one million bees that were on a tree near the rest stop.

Bill Fisher was called in to help remove the problem. Fisher, who has a bee farm in Hummelstown, has been using a vacuum cleaner to extract the bees from the tree. He said he was stung more than 40 times during the removal.

Fisher said bees become agitated and are more likely to attack when people get close and start swatting at them.

He said he has never dealt with a removal effort of this size, but he says it takes time and patience.

Fisher said a member of the state Department of Agriculture will be called in to take a sample from the captured colonies to make sure they are not Africanized bees.